Seven advance to regional bee

After Tyler Colborn won the fourth-grade spelling bee Thursday night at Mishawaka High School, he turned around to shake the hand of runner-up Logan DeSchepper.

Such was the good sportsmanship and good spelling apparent at the 24th Annual Mishawaka All City Spelling Bee.

Fourth- through sixth-graders competed Thursday night while seventh- and eighth-graders competed earlier in the day at John Young Middle School.

Educators said seven students -- the winners and runners-up in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades and the fifth-grade winner -- will advance to the South Bend Tribune Regional Spelling Bee at 6:30 p.m. March 16 at Century Center in South Bend.

Sebastian Slavinskas, a seventh-grader at Young, was the winner of the afternoon bee. Alessandro Martellaro was the seventh-grade runner-up and eighth-grade winners were Blake Buck and Kristen Lentsch. All are students at Young.

After the bee, Sebastian was so excited he was just about speechless.

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"I just can't believe it," he said.

Blake, the eighth-grade winner, said he was pretty confident the entire time.

"As my turn was approaching, I kept telling myself, 'Stay calm, you can do it,' " he said.